


just waiting for something to happen

by haipollai



Category: Captain America
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Kid Fic, M/M, Neighbors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-22
Updated: 2013-02-22
Packaged: 2017-12-03 04:54:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/694387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haipollai/pseuds/haipollai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>When they get home, Yulian runs up the stairs ahead of him, talking excitedly about seeing Captain America and Falcon and War Machine and Valkyrie on her great big horse. Others that he can't name, but Yulian knows who they and what they can do. He almost runs into their neighbor coming down the other way.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>"Sorry about him," Bucky grins, ruffling Yulian's hair, red like his mother's.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>Steve Rogers grins. "It's no problem. Guess he enjoyed the parade?"</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	just waiting for something to happen

Bucky lifts his son up onto his shoulders to watch the parade. It's the Fourth of July and the world almost ended yesterday except for the men and women going by on the float in front of them. Superheroes, led by the gallant Captain America. Bucky rolls his eyes a little but he can't help but smile.

When they get home, Yulian runs up the stairs ahead of him, talking excitedly about seeing Captain America and Falcon and War Machine and Valkyrie on her horse. Others that he can't name, but Yulian knows who they and what they can do. He almost runs into their neighbor coming down the other way.

"Sorry about him," Bucky grins, ruffling Yulian's hair, red like his mother's.

Steve Rogers grins. "It's no problem. Guess he enjoyed the parade?"

"Did you see it, Mr. Rogers?!" Yulian bounces forward excitedly.

"I did see it. I, uh, was watching it on TV."

"Did you see the Captain? He's my favorite!" Yulian points to his shirt on which the same star from Captain America's uniform is emblazoned.

Steve laughs; a warm, steady sound. "Yea, I saw the Captain."

-

James Barnes is born in Indiana to a military family, who takes him all over the world. When he is eighteen, he meets Natasha Romanova when visiting his family, while his dad is stationed in Italy. He is going to school in New York, which is the only city he has ever really loved _and_ it’s far away from his parents and their legacy and their expectations.

He asks Natasha to go with him. She says yes.

Yulian is born two years later.

Natasha disappears a year after that.

-

"Hey, Yuli? You here, kiddo?"

"In here, Papa!"

Bucky nudges the door open so he can get in with the groceries. He drops it all off in the kitchen before following Yulian's voice to the living room. "Steve?"

Steve grins sheepishly and quickly stands. "I'm so sorry. I knocked. I wanted to drop something off and Yulian said you’d be right back."

"Papa!" Yulian barrels into him, almost sending them both crashing down.

Bucky laughs and scoops him up. "Hey, kiddo. I hope you don't normally let in strangers when I'm gone."

"It's only Mr. Rogers. And he likes Captain America." Yulian pouts and wriggles until Bucky puts him down.

Bucky kisses his cheek. "You're right. You're right. So what were you dropping off?"

Steve gestures to the table. "I got it a few years back. And it doesn't do anything but sit on a shelf and I figured since Yulian likes him so much…"

"Can I keep them, Papa? Please?"

"If Mr. Rogers is giving them to you, then of course you can keep them."

-

Steve moves in next door two months after Natasha disappears. Bucky meets him one month later, when a particularly stressful night leads him to sit on the steps and chain-smoke. He almost never does it anymore but some nights he needs _something_ to calm him.

Steve is walking up the stairs, looking like he's just returned from the gym despite it being almost two in the morning.

"Are you okay?"

"Will be."

Steve bites his lower lip and sits down next to him. "I'm Steve, by the way. I think we're neighbors."

Bucky arches an eyebrow at him but offers a hand. "James Barnes but call me Bucky. Everyone else does."

-

Yulian sleeps better these days. He doesn't cry for his mother anymore. She's barely more than a vague memory now. Bucky barely has time to think about her either, beyond a flash of red hair and soft skin and lavender. Still, sometimes, he sits out on his fire escape and wonders what happened. How the hell did he fuck that one up? The city has an odd quiet to it at certain hours and there is nothing to interrupt the incessant cycle of his thoughts.

He's just sitting there, watching the city at night, with the window cracked so he can hear if Yulian needs him.

A sound catches his attention. He's not even sure what it is, at first, beyond a low whirring at the edge of his hearing. He leans against the railing, trying to pinpoint it, when he sees War Machine lowering Captain America down to the street. He glances up to see Falcon hovering high up. Bucky can't hear what they're saying but he can see the sag in Captain America's shoulders as they talk quietly outside his building.

He wonders briefly what the hell they're doing out here. Perhaps an evil mastermind is one of their neighbors. Yulian would love that. He's almost tempted to wake Yulian so he can see his heroes but it's almost three in the morning.

War Machine suddenly looks up and Bucky doesn't need to see his face to know he's looking right at him. Bucky holds his hands up defensively and retreats inside.

-

For three years, they drift in and out of each other's lives. Steve disappears sometimes for days and comes back grinning and looking a little rough around the edges. Sometimes, he lingers for weeks, showing up at Bucky's door with cookies or books for Yulian. One night, he knocks on Bucky's door at two in the morning with no explanation except that he looks so lonely and so desperate for company that Bucky lets him in.

He looks at Bucky like he matters.

Bucky has his nine to five, working at a local advertising agency. It’s not a great job, but it pays the bills and gets him home in time to pick up Yulian from daycare. Sometimes his parents come out to visit to give him a short break. He can't afford to go anywhere, but it’s nice, not being the responsible one.

And, if he and Steve Rogers keep on running into each other, he doesn't mind very much. If he sometimes wonders what it would be like to kiss Steve Rogers, when he lies in bed alone, then no one has to know.

-

Bucky sprawls over Steve's couch, watching him doodle with Yulian. He's watching Steve's hands and trying not to think about the last time he got laid. But between Yulian and work, there's not much time in between.

"I wanted to be an artist, as a kid," Steve says absently. "I used to take art supplies from school so I could draw at home."

"Why didn't your mommy and daddy buy you things?" Yulian asks.

"I didn't have a mommy and daddy." Steve smiles softly. "You're very lucky to have such a good Papa."

Bucky sits up a little straighter and Yulian pauses in turning Valkyrie's hair a strange shade of blue to look at Steve. "No mommy or daddy?" he asks, sounding shocked by the very idea. Bucky wonders if he really managed to raise Yulian to think the way they lived was so normal.

Steve shakes his head and doesn't look too distraught by the line of questioning. Maybe he's used to it. "Nope. They got hurt when I was little and couldn't take care of me."

"Well, we can share my Papa, if you want a daddy."

Bucky kisses the top of Yulian's head, hiding his smile. "I don't think Steve wants me as his daddy, Yuli."

"But you're a good daddy," Yulian protests.

Steve smiles warmly at him and Bucky feels something twist and dance inside him that he hasn't felt since a long ago night in Trento. "Thank you, Yuli, but I think your Papa is right. I think you should keep him."

They set Yuli up in front of the TV with some cartoon about robots while they got dinner. Or Bucky prepares dinner because one of the things he's learned over the years is that Steve is a bit of a shit cook. He's good at chopping things, though, so without a word, Steve gets out a knife and cutting board.

"He's a good kid," Steve says, softly. "He adores you."

Bucky laughs and takes two beers out of the fridge. All part of their strange sense of normal. "He'll learn better soon enough."

"Can I ask…what happened to his mom? It's been years and I haven't seen…" His eyes stay fixed on the vegetables in front of him, pointedly not looking at Bucky.

"She left," he says flatly. "Right before you moved in."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

Bucky shakes his head and reaches for the oil to get it warming up. "It's okay. I've accepted it. I've got Yuli to take care of."

Steve catches his arm and he's looking at him. Bucky wants to hide away from that look but can't move. His breath catches in his throat and before he can stop himself, he leans in and kisses him. Steve's lips part quickly, with barely any pressure.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have-"

"No," Bucky cuts him off. "Oh god. Please don't apologize."

For a moment, Steve just looks at him and then, oh-so-slowly, leans in to kiss him again. Soft and sweet, as if Bucky was something precious. 

"I think we need to talk about this," Steve whispers.

Bucky nods quickly, knowing he's right; knowing he can’t be selfish. "Okay. Later."

Steve lets go of him and Bucky immediately misses his touch.

-

Steve lets himself in while Bucky puts Yulian to bed. Bucky wonders if he's standing outside the door, listening to Bucky tell Yulian a bed-time story. Yulian likes when he makes them up, so he tells Yulian about Captain America showing up at their apartment, and needing Yuli's help because someone was stealing little kid's dreams.

Luckily, he falls asleep before Bucky has to figure out an ending.

Carefully, he slips out to the living room, leaving the door ajar, just in case.

It's not Steve in his apartment.

"Natasha?"

"I'm sorry, James."

-

He wakes up on a cold dirt floor, and someone is pushing at his shoulder, until he finally opens his eyes. 

"Yuli?" He mumbles, pushing himself slowly up. His head feels thick and heavy. Like after that night Toro dared him to drink Corporal Dugan's moonshine in high school.

"Papa?" Yulian whimpers and it's enough to shock him to the present. He holds out his arms to let Yuli crawl into them and holds him tightly. It's as much for his comfort as for Yulian's.

"It's okay, kiddo. It's okay, I'm here." He carefully looks around but there's not much to see. They're in a cell. Stone and dirt and metal bars. Bucky takes a deep breath before Yulian senses his panic.

"Where are we, Papa?" Yulian whispers and Bucky can only shake his head.

"I don't know, Yuli. I'm sure someone will find us though."

"How do you know?"

"Because Steve was on his way over and he'll see we were kidnapped and he'll call up Captain America." He manages a smile because he has to. Because Yuli needs him to. And ever since the day Yuli had no one else, that's what Bucky has done for him.

"Promise?"

Bucky kisses the top of his head and holds him a little tighter. "Promise," he whispers.

Time passes slowly without any way to judge it. No one comes to tell them what they're doing there. Why they want them. Why _Natasha_ was there. After a little bit, with no reminder he should be scared, Yulian starts exploring their cell. He tells Bucky about one of the comics Steve gave him where Captain America found a secret passageway and snuck out. Bucky doesn't have the heart to tell him that this isn't a comic book. There are no hidden passageways here.

After a while, Yulian grows tired of that and comes back to Bucky, curling up on his lap and asks Bucky to finish his story. Bucky takes a deep breath and starts talking.

Yulian's asleep when Bucky hears the footsteps in the hall and the sound of someone talking. Then Natasha is there, so achingly familiar next to some guy who might be her boss. Long black trench coat. Scarred face. Bucky narrows his eyes but doesn't dare move or make a sound and risk waking up Yulian. Let him sleep and dream. It might be the last time he can.

"So this is them."

"Yes, sir."

"You are Captain America's weakness. How cute." The man sneers.

Bucky's jaw drops and he snorts back his laughter. "Captain America? What drugs are you on?'

The man would arch an eyebrow, if he had any. "You don't know? Oh, that's disgustingly cute. The Captain would be noble like that." He turns to Natasha and Bucky can't look. He feels sick and holds onto Yulian a little tighter. "Do the good Captain and his associates know we have them?"

"They do, Sir."

The Skull sneers, his twisted face becoming grotesque. "Good."

-

Bucky and Yulian are dragged out when the good guys arrive. Bucky's hands are cuffed behind his back and Yulian is carried even as he screams and kicks. Bucky tries to shush him. He sees the guns all around them and men like these are testy. He grew up around men like these.

They're presented like trophies. A gun is placed to Yulian's head and Bucky wants to scream and yell and fight but he only grew up with soldiers; he never became one. He twists his wrists and glares at Captain America, standing before them, wrapped in his blue and white. He doesn't know why they've been singled out as special to this man but if something happens to Yulian, Bucky will kill him himself.

"Let them go, Skull."

"Tsk-tsk, Captain. Now the problem here is quite simple. You have something of mine that I would like back."

"We're not releasing Zola."

Bucky sees Natasha come up beside him and Bucky wants to snarl at her. He's not sure what even stops him but there's something; a look in her eyes that keeps him quiet. A warning that he doesn't understand everything, not just yet.

He settles on snarling wordlessly. It turns out to be all he has time for before the fighting starts.

-

Yulian is asleep in his lap, with one small hand clinging to his shirt. Bucky tries to avoid looking at everyone around them; even at Natasha, seated silently next to him on the jet. It's hard to avoid eye contact for long when the only seats are two long benches facing each other. Captain America has at least placed himself close to the cockpit, away from Bucky's line of sight.

"I'm sorry, James," Natasha murmurs, just louder than the steady rumble around them.

"For which part?" 

He sighs. His arm hurts even with the mild painkillers they gave him. Something had hit it during the fight, easily cutting through his flesh. The first thing he had done was reach for Yulian and curl around him to try to shield him from the worst of the flying debris. He wishes he could sleep like his son but everything feels tense and sore.

"All of it. Leaving you, leaving him. You did a good job."

Bucky snorts softly. "I did an amazing job." She laughs softly and leans down to kiss the top of Yulian's head. "Nat…"

"I'm not here to force myself back into your lives," she says quickly. "I left in the first place to keep you safe. I'm not who you thought I was."

"Obviously."

"Shh, let me tell you a story."

She tells Bucky about growing up in Russia and being recruited young to be a spy for the Motherland. About thinking she could escape with Bucky, start over as someone new and different. She tells him how Captain America came to her and warned her that the Skull was looking for her, wanting the great Black Widow at her side. Bucky and Yulian would be in danger. Captain America promised them protection, no matter what she decided, but she couldn't risk them. She was in deep cover when the Skull found out that Captain America had them under his wing and he thought he could use them.

"Captain America promised us protection?" He asks softly.

She looks at Captain America, still dressed in red, white and blue. "Yes. Especially if I helped them."

Bucky bites back the retort about it being crap protection when he doesn't know what might have happened over the last few years. "So. What now that you've fucked up your cover?" He asks instead.

"I get to come in out of the cold." She smiles, so obviously relieved that Bucky can't help but smile back.

-

Yulian wakes up eventually. Bucky still isn't sure where they are because no one has bothered to tell him where they were taken. Yulian doesn't seem concerned by that. He wriggles free, making his way over unsteadily to Captain America. He doesn't do more then glance suspiciously at Natasha but, at Bucky's small nod, accepts that she's one of the good guys now. He doesn't recognize his mother. It's been too long. Bucky realizes he doesn't even have photos of Natasha. 

Yulian's focus is back on Captain America.

His hero.

Bucky just wants to punch him. He wonders how long they've been gone; if Steve thinks he ran away.

Careful of his arm, he follows Yulian up to Captain America. He means to tell Yulian that he's sure the captain doesn't want to be bothered. Superheroes don't care about people like them. They're just ants. He could never tell Yulian that, though; not when he idolizes them so much.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"Yes, Yulian?"

"You know my name?" Yulian is so excited that he doesn't hear it but Bucky does. Even with Captain America pitching his voice low, he hears it.

He looks up at Bucky. And it's there in his eyes, the secret he's trying to hide. 

"Oh my god," Bucky whispers. Suddenly, Bucky doesn't know what he wants to do to Captain America.

Captain America quickly ducks his head again and looks at Yulian. "Of course I do.The Skull meant it. You're special to me."

Yulian's face scrunches up. "But why?" He looks back at Bucky. "Papa?"

Bucky kneels down, finally noticing that the rest of the team is giving them space, or as much as they can in the back of a jet. "If Captain America doesn't want to share his secrets, he doesn't have to. He has to protect a lot of people." He takes Yulian's arm gently and tugs him back towards him.

"Wait." Captain America sighs. Someone grumbles _about time_. "Yuli, this is why I care," he says and pushes the cowl back.

-

Steve Rogers wanted to be a soldier since he was six years old and finally understood why he would never see his daddy again thanks to a bomb in Beirut. But he was too skinny and too sick to be good anywhere but behind a desk, until Erskine came along.

He kisses Bucky and listens when Bucky tells him about army bases and always moving. He kisses Bucky's arm where the cut is already scabbing over and turning into a nasty scar that pulls when he lifts his arm too high.

At three in the morning, he sits on the fire escape and watches as Falcon drops off Captain America from whatever mission they had. He smiles when Steve looks up at him. Natasha comes over to see her son and Yulian slowly warms to the idea of even having a mother. It's a little like being a family.

Bucky lies in bed with Steve's heavy weight on him. He traces the lines of scars from fights Bucky will never hear about. He can't sleep. It's been months. Steve's team looks out for them as one of their own. Yulian's family grew overnight. But things keep on haunting him; lingering fears. 

"Natasha asked if she could have a week of leave," Steve mumbles against his neck.

"She wants to take Yulian somewhere."

"Oh? Good. You know if she hadn't left back then-"

"I'm not angry with her. Or you. I get it." He sighs softly and runs his palm down Steve's spine. "I get why you never told me who you were. Or that Nat was actually a secret undercover agent. I get it."

"Are you okay with this? And us," Steve adds, after a moment. "Being together."

"I never thought I'd be the stay-at-home parent." He waits as Steve huffs a small laugh. "My mom told me once about how hard it was to stay at home and let dad go off and be a soldier. Didn't really understand it before."

"And now?"

"I hate it. I hate watching you leave but you're Captain fucking America so what else am I supposed to do?"

Steve kisses him because there's no answer. No solution.

But for once he wants to be a little bit selfish.

-

It's the Fourth of July again. There was no plot against the world this year, at least not one publicly known. but the Captain and his team still stand tall in the parade. Bucky lifts Yulian up onto his shoulders so he can see over the crowd. They managed to get decent spots but the push of the crowd is pretty intense. Bucky just tries to hold his ground so Yulian can see.

Yulian pulls on Bucky's hair when he sees the float covered in superheroes round the corner. Captain America, the Falcon, War Machine, Giant Man and their newest member, the beautiful Black Widow. Valkyrie rides beside them on her winged horse. 

The crowd erupts when Captain America looks in their direction, everyone wanting to think he's looking right at them. Bucky looks up at Yulian and grins. Bucky knows exactly who Captain America is looking at. As soon as the float is gone, Yulian is pulling on his hair again. "We have to go! We need to get the cake before Steve gets home!"

Bucky laughs. "I think we'll manage to beat him Yuli."

"You promise? He has…he has friends who can you know." He leans down so he can whisper to Bucky. Steve made Yulian pinky swear to never tell anyone his secret identity. Yulian's taken his promise very seriously. "They can _fly_ , papa."

Careful not to elbow anyone, or dislodge Yulian, he reaches up to ruffle his hair. "I know, Yuli. Don't worry. Your mom will slow him down."

"Promise?"

"Promise, he'll have the best birthday ever thanks to you."

Yulian rests his cheek on top of Bucky's head, hooking his hands under his chin. "Papa?" He asks when they're finally out of the crowd. Bucky breathes a sigh of relief and walks a little easier.

"Yea, Yuli?"

"Is Steve part of our family? Like a second daddy?"

"I think he is, is that okay?"

Yuli thinks about it for a minute and Bucky lets him work it out. "I like Steve," he finally pronounces. "He's a hero."

Bucky laughs and helps Yuli down off his shoulders as they go into the subway. "Yea, yea he is." Bucky holds Yulian's hand tightly on the subway and listens to him go on about the parade. In some ways, it's exactly like the year before, but Bucky thinks about who they're going home to and he knows it's nothing like the year before.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Lanyon for the read through!!  
> I hope the ending isn't crap after all of your hard work.


End file.
